Return to Batad: Prologue

On the bus home, I was still groveling about the 0.54% I needed to get a 1.50 in my summer class. With three hefty bags in tow and an aching back, all I’d wanted was to get home and plop down on any soft surface and enjoy whatever was left of my summer.
 

When I was getting ready for my trip home I had these things to pack:

1. My favorite shirts, lest they succumb to the unforgiving teeth and claws of the merciless rats back where I stayed in QC.
2. My Nikon D5000, laptop, and external HDD. Besides the obvious reason, I had to bring them, especially the camera, so I could cover our trip to Batad in Banaue.
3. Certified copies of my Form 5’s for the last 5 sems. These were for a scholarship. I’d already given my father the original copies before, which he kept in his desk drawer in the office, and subsequently sabotaged by a disgruntled former employee or something; and
4. The ‘loot’ from my Baclaran adventure the day before. Trains, bargains, and muscle pains all in one day HOORAY ;) I just couldn’t wait to show my family how I got something worth P300-400 for only P50 :)

Thus, the three hefty bags. Bow.

When I got down from the bus I was greeted by a security guard with a look of suspicion on his face, who asked where I was headed to. I had to explain that I lived in the compound he was guarding. Guess I’d been away for so long that the guards don’t recognize me anymore.

I crossed the highway and walked home. I stopped for a while to look up and admire that all-too-familiar night sky. Ah, probinsya. ♥

I rang the bell and sure enough, my brothers Lawin, Alon, and Oen were there to meet me and help me with my bags, one of which held my HDD which had all seasons of Adventure Time and Regular Show. :/ Tatay was in front of the computer, attending to some last-minute logistics matters for our trip to Batad the next day.

The next day.

And then Alon told me it would be for six days, and it’d be just me and Tatay. No brothers because they didn’t want to come.

Six days of my life.

I didn’t know it was for six days.

There’s no cell phone reception in Batad.

tbc